Jane Turns Ten!!

Jane is in the DOUBLE DIGITS! I am in disbelief that I have a 10 year old. As my oldest, Jane's birthday is also my anniversary of becoming a mother. That means I've been doing this motherhood thing for a decade now. Gosh, a decade sounds momentous, doesn't it? It is my greatest honor to be her mother. There's just nothing like watching your baby grow up into a toddler then on to the little kid stage, not far behind that the big kid stage and now, my once tiny baby, is a preteen! I keep saying to myself, "I have a preteen, I have a preteen!!" And it still sounds unbelievable. But it's true! With Jane I am entering the stage of parenthood that is less constant simple guidance on basic behavior and more filled with nuance and careful explanations on the complexities of life. I have heard this stage described as becoming more mentally and emotionally draining than physically draining and I would have to agree. I am always trying to figure out what information she is ready to hear or would be helpful for her to know now and what I should hold back for later. I find myself often thinking of a passage in the Hiding Place when Corrie Ten Boom asks her father, Casper about something he doesn't think would be helpful for her to know at her age. Casper asks her to lift a heavy suitcase and when Corrie responds that she can't because it's too heavy for her, he tells her it is the same with knowledge. "Some things are too heavy for a young child to bear. Until you are older and strong enough to bear it, you have to trust me to carry it for you." I am so glad I read that book so recently, if just for that quote in this season in life. (it is a splendid book and I'm glad I read it for much more than that.) It has been a great guidepost. It can still be hard to decipher at this age what is too heavy and what she can handle. As soon as I hesitate to give a full explanation on something, Jane is filled with even more curiosity and persists with, "Tell me, tell me, tell me, Please!!" Sometimes I am able to find an appropriate way to explain a complicated issue for her age and other times I just say, "No, not now." I am still learning! God is ever faithful to guide me! 

Jane is still a big dreamer! Her most recent dream is to open her own restaurant! It would be a burger and pizza place and she would name it Cheese-tastic! Every dish would have the option to make it cheese-tastic with extra cheese and she would also have a braces friendly kids menu. She even has a location picked out in town. I love her creativity. This year she has gotten into creating stories. One day we didn't have the chance to listen to an audiobook in the car like we usually do. Instead we took turns creating a story a sentence at a time. It turned into something Jane really loved and we are adding to it as we think of more. Maybe it will be a book one day! She really believes it will. She wants me to illustrate it too. If she wants me to do that it's going to be awhile! I gotta work on my skills! I drew her birthday card using inspirations from our story. It's about a family of Robins living in a grove of cherry blossom trees. Jane also has a few other stories she if developing in her mind. She's just got to get over her aversion of actually writing things down. Once she does, there'll be no stopping her!

I've noted before that since Jane is my first and the age of 10 is as new to her as it is to me, so I like to have a place on the blog for what the age of 10 is like. Well, a big change this year was the addition of braces! It was definitely an adjustment, but we're just about a year in now and she is very used to them. She is still looking forward to a year from now when she can get them taken off! I said last year that the biggest difference from 8 to 9 was questions and the quality of her questions. This year the questions are still there, but the difference this time is that she has some quality answers! She is good at problem solving and coming up with creative solutions. When I was trying to figure out how to move a big heavy bucket of water from one place to another she said, "Why not put it on wheels?" And I was like, Oh wow, YES! That's definitely the solution! She's had other solutions like that as well, but that is the most recent one I can remember. When she wants something to happen she really sets her mind to figuring out how we can make it work. My work was getting a little overwhelming for me while trying to homeschool 3 kids this year and when I asked the kids if they'd like a teenager to come and hang out and play with them they all said, "NO!" So then I asked what if Jane babysits Piper and she is in charge before 12pm for 4 days a month. They all agreed to it. Jane has done awesome with her babysitting job and she is enjoying the $10 per day pay! Piper loves her so it works out for everyone! Some days I have to remind her she is in charge and to be a good babysitter, but most days she does great! The last thing that's new about 10 is that Jane is into watching Jane Austen movies with me!!! :D This is a dream come true for me. I've hoped that she would enjoy Jane Austen with me and now that she does I can barely believe it. She watched my favorite Jane Austen movie, BBC Pride and Prejudice and she loved it. She kept asking when we could watch more each day. Then most recently we watched one I hadn't seen yet. The newest adaption of Persuasion. 2023 I think. She says she might even like that one best! I thought it was a fun mix of feeling more current and yet keeping to the spirit of the original. It made it a bit easier for Jane to follow without me pausing to explain as much as Pride and Prejudice. We both enjoyed it! Here's to many more years of watching period dramas with my dramatic girl! <3 

I am so excited to write this section! It's about school. No, it's not because I get to tell you she fell in love with school this year. In my opinion, it's even better. She fell in love with reading! I said in last year's blog that she had read a few times for fun when she was 8 and that was huge for her, but I knew I wanted more for her. She has a story focused soul and I knew reading would be a love of hers if it just wasn't such a struggle. I knew focusing on reading and making it enjoyable for the kids(especially Jane) was my priority for school this year. I read a few books myself about reading. The three most helpful books/resources for me this year were "Raising Kids Who Read", "The Book Whisperer" and The Read Aloud Revival Podcast. I took a couple of tips from each of those resources and implemented them in our school and daily life. One was 30 minutes of reading for all of us daily. The kids usually listen to an audiobook while I read my own book. Second was requiring them to read for 15 minutes before they could stay up an extra hour with me. Third was having family read aloud time at bedtime so the older ones could really listen and the younger kids could fall asleep. Forth was having a reading log, not minutes read or pages or chapters or anything like that, but just writing down each book they read whether it was a graphic novel, a picture book, an easy chapter book, an audiobook, etc! (the only things I didn't note were learning to read books or picture/board books with little to no words) They loved seeing the number climb up. You know what? Jane went from just a few books read by herself last year to over 150 books for this year!!!! And the more important part? She now sees herself as a reader! She has a favorite book and a favorite author and a favorite style of book. She knew none of that last year. The last point I'll add here is the picture of her above I caught of her after I finished putting Piper to bed. It is of her reading while the younger kids were finishing their show before bed. (they get to watch when I put Piper down.) She chose a book over the show right in front of her! Incredible. School is not nearly the struggle it has been before. Using a spiral notebook to write down what she needs to get done for the day in school gave her the responsibility of getting it done and it was a game changer. The only thing she complains about sometimes still is math. But she still gets it done without too much fuss. For Super Friday this year in the fall she retook Perler Beads and PE with Atlas and loved it! She also did Nailed it. For the spring she took Sewing, Crochet and Lego innovations. She loved all of those classes too. But we struggled with some morning anxiety this year for both Jane and Atlas and so we're taking this next year off. Maybe we'll find time to do a different class in the afternoon or we'll just take it easy. Either way I'm just so thrilled with the progress Jane made in her schooling this year. :D

Jane continues to be fast at making friends and loves to be social. Definitely an extrovert because I can tell she is energized by being around people. She has many sweet and lovely park friends, mostly girls. They have such a good time together making up and practicing plays, just chatting, throwing balls, creating Stuffie Bible Stories and babysitting their baby siblings together. I love watching her build friendships. She has friends that are boys, but I would say they are more her friends because they are friends with Atlas. The one she has that seems more like her friend is Liam. She says it's different than being friends with other boys because they've known each other since they were 1 and 2. They were in Lego Innovations together this year and had a great time partnering on the team builds together. We reconnected with another long time bestie this year and recently they have loved chatting on Messenger kids this year. Paige and Jane have always gotten along so easily and I love seeing them be such good friends. I pray Jane continues to make good choices in friends because who you surround yourself with is so important to your emotional, mental and spiritual health!

Just looking at that pile of siblings fills my heart with joy! Jane loves being the first born of 5. I asked her if she wishes for more and she said no. I also asked if she ever wishes for less and she also said no. I'm glad she's so happy with the siblings she has. <3 Jane gets along best with Atlas. They are the bigs. I love that they both grew in their reading so much this year that they sometimes read the same books and can talk about them now. Even though they are close they still get upset with each other often. Especially when it comes to being competitive, we're constantly working on good sportsmanship. Alexandria and Jane are continuing to grow closer despite their differences. Xan getting older and being able to stay up as one of the big kids is helping. Jane will tell you they still don't play together much, but I see it happening more and more. Flynn and Jane love to play chase and Jane likes his excitableness. Flynn can be very silly and it makes Jane laugh. They've got that silly energetic bond. Jane is almost like Piper's second mom. Piper was even calling Jane Momma for a little while. There was a few mornings when Piper woke up in the morning she went straight to Jane to snuggle. I love that sweet big sister-baby sister relationship. My family experience with just one sibling so close in age is so different than hers, but I'm so glad it seems just as special!

Height

Birth: 21 Inches

1 Years Old: 28 1/4 inches

2 Years Old: 32 3/4 inches

3 Years Old: 36 1/2 inches

4 Years Old: 3' 3" (39 inches)

5 Years Old: 3' 6"

6 Years Old: 3' 8.5"

7 Years Old: 3' 11"

8 Years Old: 4' 2.5"

9 Years Old: 4' 4"

10 Years Old: 4' 6.5"

A Year in Pictures: Firsts and Favorite Moments

I started a "firsts" section as part of a birthday blog post back when Jane turned 1 and I've told myself ever since that I could still find a "first" for every month of the year at least for the first few years of their life. The firsts I found grew more and more unconventional through the years. And at some point I had to add in favorite moments to the firsts with a birthday blog post. I realize now, sure, I do love finding the new experiences that they had through the previous year, but I think I like watching them grow and change more. It has become less about finding "firsts" and more about finding a picture from each month of the year. So I'm renaming this section again as A Year in Pictures! It never gets old looking back through pictures of the previous year to see how my kids grow and what they got to experience! I do believe, as unconventional as they are, the vast majority of these pictures are still indeed firsts.

First Pulled Teeth - May 2024

Getting to hold Piper in the pool - June 2023

First time having braces - July 2023

First Original Perler Bead design - August 2023

First Super Friday with a sibling, First day of 4th Grade - August 2023

Firsts at Camp Tejas - Wall Zip, Lake zip, Mud pit, Canoeing, Reba's etc. - September 2023

First time giving a gift with her own money - September 2023

First (Zelda) Themed Trunk or Treat - October 2023

Fox Balloon Float - November 2023

First Ear Piercing - November 2023
(eventually let them close up)

First tie die! - November 2023

First Christmas at Tejas - December 2023

First babysitting job - January 2024

First time driving a Go-Kart - February 2024

First Monster Jam - February 2024

First Play - February 2024

First Youtube channel - February 2024

First time using a Stethoscope - March 2024

First Legit Roller Coaster -  April 2024

First Field Day - April 2024

First time holding a baby bird - May 2024

Golf Cart at the Beach - May 2024

First pair of Roller Blades - May 2024

Favorites

Food is a love of Jane's. She doesn't just eat to live, she lives to eat! ;) It's important to her to stay healthy though. She does he best not to overeat or have too many carb snacks in a day. Her favorite food remains unchanged! Pizza! She loves pretty much all forms of pizza, but frozen pizza is not her fav. She loves my homemade pizza, Papa John's, Cici's, Pizza Hut and most recently she loves Domino's for their Pan Pepperoni Pizza. If you paid attention to her restaurant idea earlier in this post then you should be able to guess her second favorite food. Cheese Burgers! She always wants them with Extra Mayo. Whataburger is her favorite fast food place, but she also loves Dad's grilled burgers. Other favorites are grilled cheese, pepperoni, Garlic Naan, Cornbread, popcorn, garlic bread and Waffles. Her favorite sit down restaurants are Schlotzsky’s, Pablo’s (used to be cilantros) and Pappas Seafood. Favorite sweets include Cream soda, ice cream, Hershey's drops, homemade brownies, cupcakes and donuts. Also a bunch of gummy candy she can't have right now because of her braces.

Oh boy! I get to share with you Jane's favorite books from this year! She will tell you her favorite book she's read on her own is Sisters by Raina Telgemeier. She read it in one day for 3 hours! It was a huge breakthrough for her. It's a graphic novel and she loves the art style and that they are based on someone's real life. She can relate to this story because the author and her sister are very different and can struggle to get along and Xan and Jane can be the same way sometimes. One of the very first books that got Jane to read on her own with no prompting from me was the branches series called Princess in Pink. Funny retellings of fairytales in easy chapters with lots of illustrations. It was the perfect starter! She read and enjoyed a lot of Branches series and now she has blazed past that level and reads all sorts of things. Still nothing that has just text though. I think she'll get there eventually or she'll just keep really loving audiobooks. Either will be wonderful. Her favorite family read aloud was The Little House on The Prairie, her favorite audiobook was The Wild Robot. Her favorite Manga is The Promised Neverland, and finally her favorite picture book is Naughty Mable. Here's to many more years of loving reading!!

Pretty much all of Jane's favorite shows are anime! I love it! Her favorites are The Promised Neverland, Spy Family, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. She still watches Dr. Stone when there are new episodes. Other favorites are cooking or renovations shows and her favorite show to watch at night with all the kids is Garfield. A favorite family movie night movie was Ultraman. Recently she watched the Old BBC Pride and Prejudice mini series/movie and loved it! She also likes the newest Persuasion. I can't wait to watch more with her! I love that our watching preferences have become so similar.  

Jane will say she doesn't really like video games very much, but she plays Roblox all the time!! I guess she considers it different than regular video games and I kind of do to. But it's still a video game app. One of her favorite games in Roblox is called clip it. I'm trying to learn more about it, but I'm still such a newbie about it. I think I should probably get an account myself and play with her sometime. Other favorites this year have been Minecraft (She has created her own town, so fun), Harvest Moon: Pioneers of Olive town, (I loved that she was loving this game. HM is one of my favs, so I started playing too and she was sad I got "ahead" of her. There not really an "ahead" in farming simulation games but I guess it discouraged her. I stopped playing to let it just be hers, but she hasn't come back to it yet.) She also likes to play Just Dance with friends, and Super smash bros. with her siblings. She enjoyed Princess Peach Showtime that she got for her birthday as well.

Jane's favorite belonging is Lamby by far. It's so sweet. I hope she doesn't feel too cool for her favorite stuffie anytime soon. She also loves all her Squishmallows. She has really been enjoying getting to use my old phone. She's not allowed on the internet or any other app I haven't approved yet. She pretty much just uses it for Messenger Kids, to take pictures and videos, play music or listen to audiobooks. She was really proud of using her babysitting money to buy herself some new shoes and she loves them! She uses her headphones everyday and loves her new bigger water bottle. She really likes anything new though. Don't we all?

Jane loves to stay active! One of her favorite things to do is talk with friends. She loves to swim and play tag. Brains and Brawn Club has become a favorite activity lately and it makes me so happy that she loves it! She did really well at the basketball game knock out and is learning some strategies in Dodgeball that is making her more of a threat on the court! Go girl! Creating Stuffie Bible Stories is something she was really loving for a while! Look up The Noble Kids Stuffie Stories on Youtube! She realized it was hard work making quality entertainment, so she has taken a break for a while. She also likes to journal and make up stories that could be books or movies all the time. Her mind always seems to be creating! She loves to listen to music and her favorite music has pretty much stayed the same since last year. 

Jane still loves to go just about anywhere! She asked to go back to Big Rivers with her siblings for her birthday this year. Sam and I got to take the big 3 while my mom kept the little 2. We had such a fun time together! She adored going to Camp Tejas and is eagerly awaiting our next trip in just a couple of months. The beach is a long standing favorite of Jane's as well as just going to Marmee and Pappaw's house. She also loves to go to park day and any new park she hasn't been to or really anywhere she hasn't been before is where she loves to go. She loves to discover new things and experiences. We're planning to go to the new Great Wolf Lodge near Houston this year and she cannot wait! She's already predicting that it will be her favorite vacation yet.

Finish

I know I'm her mother and completely biased, but man, Jane is a fantastic 10 year old. I loved seeing her confidence blossom this year in knowing what she enjoys, what her strengths and weaknesses are and who she is. In the year through pictures section I can see her find her smile again and by these final 2 pictures she isn't even thinking about her braces anymore. Recently, we were having a conversation about friends and I was telling her, "If your friends are asking you to do things you aren't comfortable with or you know is wrong then you need to tell them that's not ok and if they keep asking maybe you can't be friends anymore." When I finished my spiel about the company you keep, she said, "If they're doing that then they aren't really acting like a friend anyway." She shows wisdom beyond her age and I'm glad we are entering this preteen age gracefully so far. I know the hormones are just beginning! I've gotten my fair share of eye rolls already. ;) Don't worry she hasn't left her hyper silly energy behind just yet. (maybe she never will completely) I'm glad she still feels like she can imagine and be silly with her younger siblings. I'm continuing to pray that she feels like she can share everything with me and be herself and knows that I will always have unconditional love for her. I hope she keeps her feet planted in the unshakable foundation of the love and salvation of Jesus through this season of adolescence when it feels like everything else is changing. I will do my best to be a rock she can cling to and be there to guide her as she learns to navigate the world slowly, but surely on her own. Keep shining bright Jane!

Happy 10th Birthday Girlie! We love you so much!

2 Timothy 1:7-10

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.